Where Would You Put 300 Bikes in St. Pete?

There’s still time to suggest places to put bike stations for St. Pete’s bike share program that begins in September.

ST. PETERSBURG – The City Council here has approved funding for a bike share program, now officials need to decide where to put 30 stations for the 300 bikes.

Earlier this month, St. Pete held a workshop for residents to suggest the best places for the stations. The event began with an overview of the program, which will be run by Coast Bike Share. Then the larger group broke into smaller groups who marked suggested stations on a map.

It’s likely, said Al Bartolotta of Forward Pinellas (the agency formed by the merger of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Pinellas Planning Council) that the city will hold another session later this summer. But you don’t have to wait until then to suggest spots. You can go online to coaststpete.com to give your thoughts.

Bartolotta said the basic criteria for choosing spots to locate the bikes include “quarter mile spacing between stations, to the extent possible; easy access for maintenance crews and proximate distances to major origin and destination points where people live, work and play. … the final decision on the station locations will also consider the need to serve economically disadvantaged neighborhoods even if they exceed the general spacing criteria.”

Bartolotta added, “St. Petersburg has several factors working in its favor to make bike share a viable transportation alternative. They include an established network of bike facilities and trails along with a grid pattern of streets to make the city attractive for bicyclists. As the Pinellas MPO concluded, bike share is a feasible endeavor for areas beyond St. Petersburg, but the commitment of the beach communities and other cities like Clearwater, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Largo and Safety Harbor remains to be seen. Other Pinellas municipalities with downtown areas more favorable for bicycling than Tampa are exploring the possibility, and the connections provided by the Pinellas Trail and other trails in the county provide the backbone for such a countywide network.”